什麼是雅典

現代希臘語作Athínai

希臘城市（1991年人口772,000）和首都。地處希臘東部的薩羅尼克灣（saronic Gulf），雅典港口比雷埃夫斯位於灣內。爲西方智慧和文化概念來源，亦爲民主資源地。原爲古代城邦國家，西元前6世紀時開始發揮其影響力。西元前480年被薛西斯一世所毀，後又立即重建。西元前450年在伯里克利的領導下，成爲商業繁榮、佔盡文化和政治優勢的城市。接下來的四十年間，完成了許多重要建築，如：衛城和巴特農神廟。雅典的黃金時代出現許多着名大師：哲學家有蘇格拉底、柏拉圖、亞理斯多德；劇作家有：索福克裏斯、亞里斯多芬（Aristophanes）、尤利比提斯；歷史學家有：希羅多德、修斯提底斯和色諾芬（Xenophon）；雕刻家有：普拉克西特利斯（Praxiteles）和菲迪亞斯。西元前404年，伯羅奔尼撒戰爭結束，雅典敗於斯巴達；但又迅速恢復其獨立和繁榮。西元前338年以後，臣服於馬其頓，在西元前197年與羅馬的庫諾斯克法萊戰役中曾出兵協助馬其頓。西元前146年受羅馬統治。13世紀時，雅典被十字軍佔領，1465年被鄂圖曼土耳其人佔領至1833年成爲獨立的希臘的首都爲止。雅典目前是希臘重要的商業和對外貿易中心。因有許多遺址和博物館，使得旅遊業很發達。

Athens

City (pop., 1991: 772,000), capital of Greece. It is located inland near its port, Piraeus, on the Saronic Gulf in eastern Greece. The source of many of the West's intellectual and artistic conceptions, including that of democracy, Athens is generally considered the birthplace of Western civilization. An ancient city-state, it had by the 6th century BC begun to assert its influence. It was destroyed by Xerxes in 480 BC, but rebuilding began immediately. By 450 BC, led by Pericles, it was at the height of its commercial prosperity and cultural and political dominance, and over the next 40 years many major building projects, including the Acropolis and Parthenon, were completed. Athens' “Golden Age” saw the works of the philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; the dramatists Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Euripides; the historians Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon; and the sculptors Praxiteles and Phidias. The Peloponnesian Wars with Sparta ended in Athens' defeat in 404, but it quickly recovered its independence and prosperity. After 338 BC Athens came under Macedonia's hegemony, which was lifted with the aid of Rome in 197 BC in a battle at Cynoscephalae. It became subject to Rome in 146 BC. In the 13th century Athens was taken by the Crusaders. It was conquered in 1456 by the Ottoman Turks, who held it until 1833, when it was declared the capital of independent Greece. Athens is Greece's principal center for business and foreign trade. Its ruins and many museums make it a major tourist destination.